UPS Advice...

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pokkel

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Hi guys.

Our office is looking at getting UPS for our pc's. We're a 3d Rendering company and graphic design company, so our pc's are quite high spec.

The pc's are:

PC1:
CPU: i7 2600k
GPU: Radeon HD6670
PSU: 450W
Monitor: 22" Lcd monitor

PC2:
CPU: i7 2600k
GPU: NVidia 9800GT
PSU: 450W
Monitor: 22" Lcd monitor

PC3:
CPU: AMD 1100T
GPU: Nvidia GTX 460
PSU: 500W
Monitor: 22" Lcd monitor

PC4:
CPU: i7 930
GPU: Radeon HD5700 series
PSU: 730W
Monitor: 22" Lcd monitor

PC5:
CPU: i7 930
GPU: Radeon HD5700 series
PSU: 650W
Monitor: 22" Lcd monitor

We have a Mecer ME-600-BK (600VA) which I tested on PC1 & PC2, which seems to work quite well. It gives me more than 10 minutes to shut down, tested when opening and closing CPU-hungry programs and even rendering...

But when I tried that same power supply on PC3, it didn't last long. Something like a minute under load. Same with PC4 & PC5.

I have been looking at this UPS - http://www.pc-direct.co.za/p1150VC/1150VC--Apollo-1500VA-Line-Interactive-UPS-W9AH-BATTERY2.aspx

I have not dealt with UPS components before, but the rest of my hardware knowledge is pretty adequate.

Can you guys give any advice please?:wtf:

Thank you,
Johan.

www.ngldotimage.co.za
www.newgraphicallab.co.za
www.logodesignlab.co.za
 
You have two options for UPS, on-line or off-line (line interactive).
The cheapies you get is allways off-line and will only help for power failures.
On-line ups's will filter your power and give you 100% protection.

Rather look for a good quality 3KVA unit.
That should allow for you to expand in furture and not strain the ups in any way.
Backup time should then also be around 30 - 60 min :)
 
There are two main things to look at in a UPS, to my knowledge:

* The VA rating, which must be greater than the sum of all the components connected to it. VA and Watts are fairly closely related, so e.g. you can take your 730W PSU, and add whatever the monitor is rated at, and you'll have a minimum figure for your UPS (assuming you are going to use a single UPS per PC).

* The Ampere*Hour rating (for your example above, it is "9AH BATTERY*2", i.e. 18AH at 12V). The AH rating will determine how long you can expect to operate your equipment for, before the battery is drained. In this case, you get 12V*18AH = 216 VAH, which, when subjected to a load of 730VA (or Watts) would suggest a theoretical max of around 20 minutes. However, you also have to take things like conversion efficiency into account (converting 12V to 220V, and inverting DC to AC), as well as not completely draining the battery to prevent damage to it.

Ultimately, the higher the VA rating, the more load you can supply from the UPS, and the higher the AH rating, the longer you can run that load. Naturally, running a smaller load than the max VA rating should extend your run time, but generally, that sort of UPS is only intended to run long enough to shut the machine down.

The slightly bigger APC UPS's (e.g. http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=sua1500i) come with a pretty substantial battery pack, and I have been able to run for several hours before the UPS had had enough. You can also add an additional battery pack to extend your runtime even further. Of course, they are a lot more expensive, too.

(Bah, it seems that my correlating VA and Watts for AC loads is somewhat misguided, according to that APC link: 1500VA ~= 980 Watts. This is due to the PowerFactor. See http://www.powerstream.com/VA-Watts.htm).
 
Thanks for all your replies and good advice guys.

The main question I have now is... Is it worth it buying this UPS seeing that it is under a R900?

We basically just need a UPS where we can save our work and shut down our pc's... We don't need to run for more than 10 minutes. Even 5 minutes will be fine.
 
Ideally I would suggest something like APC or EATON but those are big $$$
 
get a small cheap ups for each pc, thats what i do i have about 25 pc set up like this , i olny have to replace the broken one if it goes faulty.
 
pokkel said:
Thanks for all your replies and good advice guys.

The main question I have now is... Is it worth it buying this UPS seeing that it is under a R900?

We basically just need a UPS where we can save our work and shut down our pc's... We don't need to run for more than 10 minutes. Even 5 minutes will be fine.
Click to expand...

Just remember that the level of autonomy is dynamic, which means that on a fully charged UPS you may get, say, 5 mins. But your UPS isn't always fully charged, low voltage conditions may have caused the UPS to use battery, without you being aware of it, which in turn means that you may not have the require 5 mins to complete a shutdown.

So don't cut things too fine.
 
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